Sookie lives in a palace. Sounds a bit like the first line in a children's story book, doesn't it? I can just imagine pages of colorful illustrations of a cute little furball dwarfed in the halls of a grand palace in some faraway country, having close calls and adventures in the turrets and near–mishaps around the moat, then showing up in the palace kitchen where some kind staff person pours cream into a small crystal bowl before kitty retires to a silk pillow and dreams of out–smarting the royal mice.

No, it's not that kind of palace. Think shears, clippers, brushes, shampoo, hair dryers. Sookie lives at The Pet Palace, the pet grooming and boarding facility in Lafayette. Before you go thinking cute and cuddly little mascot, think fearless and mighty CEO. Yep, Sookie runs the Palace, so perhaps a more fitting title is Princess.

The day I dropped by, there were no fewer than 15 dogs present. Sookie is undeterred by all that dogness. Manager Sherry Day says Sookie enjoys hopping up on the grooming table to watch as they're working and the dogs seem to know she belongs there.

Instead of a silk pillow to sleep on, Sookie has her pick of any of the four crates belonging to Boris, Stormy, Sparky or Uga – the dogs who accompany their people to work. Sookie is named after the human-fairy hybrid from the HBO series, True Blood. She (the cat not the fairy) has been living at The Pet Palace since she was about eight weeks old so all that barking and yipping are normal sounds for her.

Soon as she's old enough Sherry says Sookie will be spayed and when the "palace" moves to Chickamauga in early July, you can bet Princess Sookie will be right there to give everyone a royal welcome.

Ann Malone is a pet photographer and can't remember a time she did not have pets in her life. Today she has three dogs, three cats and one parrot. She can be reached at annmh@live.com.